I’ve never been a great one for mumbo-jumbo, having shied away from everything that I thought was spiritual or could not be explained by science. However I’ve done a lot of reading recently on the power of positive thinking and it has had a very positive effect on my life.

Having read a couple of great books, in particular the Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz, and listened to some Tony Robbins tapes, I decided that this was the push I needed in my life to help me to take positive action to achieve the goals and successes I want. These changes can take some time to implement, but starting immediately is what needs to be done and I have found the techniques very successful.

Most of us spend our lives with negative thoughts, “I’m never going to succeed at this”, “how am I going to pay the bills?” We live with a negative mentality, and more often than not a poverty mentality as well. I have found the poverty mentality to be a great thorn in my side. Often I would go out for a meal and select the cheapest item on the menu with the idea that saving bits of money here and there was the right thing to do, and would help me to grow wealthy. I was living with a mentality of poverty and the depriving myself of some basic treats. I’ve since learned that, although one should not be blatantly outrageous and throw money around one needs to create a different mentality regarding money.

They wealth mentality is what one needs to strive for. A few good tips I learned from the great Dan Kennedy, were to have money lying around, always keep some with you, pay for things with cash not card. With credit cards and plastic being the media used today for making payments we have moved away from the idea of what cash actually is. Many of us never see money, well, not real money, from day to day or week to week. We don’t handle it, and this has a negative affect on our perceptions of what money is all about also.

These days I try to keep a good supply of cash in my wallet, it makes me feel good to see it in there, and it makes me feel good to hand it out. I get a very different feeling from making a payment with notes than I do with plastic. You will find the same too. And it’s important also to give some away to charity, or as tips for good service, or even to that homeless person in the street. Another crazy thing is a concept that if you give your money away you end up getting more back. But when you listen to so many people saying that it works, it makes you wonder whether they’ve all got it wrong, or whether there’s actually something in it.

I have found making these basic changes are having a positive influence on my life and I intend to continue them for the rest of my days.

Terry has been writing about personal success for a number of years. He also has a site which focuses on the Kidco Gate and in particular the Kidco Hearth Gate for child safety in and around the home.